Ripple
by IceTaloned Frayfu
Summary: Becky has been Wordgirl for almost as long as she could remember, and has never had any troubles with her powers. Well sure there is the occasional dented lamp post, and the odd instance where she gets a song thats playing halfway across the city stuck in her head, but no major troubles untill now. Strange things are happining, and now more than ever she can't trust her eyes.
1. Mild Frusturations

". . . And then I commanded my super-powered army of robots to destroy every city in the world and to rebuild them in my honor without any schools, prisons (excuse my redundancy), or dentist offices!" exclaimed Toby as he stood in front of the class. The teacher gave a strained smile.

"Well Toby, that was very. . . creative. Does anyone else have a dream they want to share today."

The Teacher asked with a hopeful voice. Becky Botsford, aka Wordgirl gave a sigh and stared at the clock, where she could have sworn the minute hand was slower than usual. It was funny, her superpowers helped her fight crime and reach things on the top shelf, but were useless for the important stuff, like speeding up time when she had a slight headache and just wanted to get home. The closest thing to time powers she had was her superspeed, and that only made everything else seem to move slower, not faster. Maybe if she worked really hard she could find a way to use her superspeed, only in reverse, so she would slow down instead of speed up, super slow? The minutes would fly by! but wait, that would make her appear super slow, her classmates would get suspicious if she didn't move an inch over a period of five minutes, and if it took three seconds for her to blink. Yet again, stranger things have happened. . .

"ohhhhhhh, I had a dream last night where I was riding a unicorn" said Violet.

"Oh please, a unicorn" snickered Toby as he walked past Violets desk on the way to his seat.

"Hey! What's wrong with unicorns?" cried Becky indignantly jumping to both her friend and the unicorn's defense.

"Now now class, settle down, settle down," said the teacher. Becky glared at Toby, who gave smirked back. After spending all of yesterday afternoon stopping the Butcher from robbing the bank, dry cleaners, laundromat, and grocery store. (he said he was running errands while stealing) Becky didn't get much sleep. When she finally did get to bed after Botsford family game night and homework it was around midnight. It was frustrating to hear the whole class talk about dreams and sleep, especially when she got very little. And it didn't put her in a bad mood at all, nope, did she mention that she is never sarcastic?

Becky gave another sigh and tried to look as if she was actually paying attention, it was a noble effort, but not enough. She let her gaze slide to the window where a bluebird was sitting on a branch, ruffling its feathers. Victoria Best was talking now, something about winning an Olympic medal. The bluebird fluffed its feathers and opened its beak to sing- when suddenly everything flickered. It didn't darken or suddenly white out, it was as if her entire vision was a pool of water and someone sent lighting fast ripples through its center, like a movie theater screen which for only a moment was projected with two films that overlapped haphazardly.

Becky jumped in her seat and gave a quick yelp, earning a frown from the teacher and a glare from Victoria. Violet gave her a concerned look but Becky hardly noticed it, she blinked her eyes and stared at the window again. The bird was still there singing along like nothing happened, Victoria was still talking in that annoying voice of hers, her super hearing detected no evil laughter or powering up of rays anywhere, and if she listened just right she could hear the twittering chirps of the bird outside. Becky relaxed "I need more sleep" she muttered. Violet looked sympathetic.

". . . next Monday is the due date for your career study papers. Please remember to write your name clearly on the top so I know who to give the grade to." Becky returned to staring at the clock.

(Line Break)

Doctor Two Brains stood over his desk, goggles over his eyes and test tube in his hand as he slowly picked up a beaker filled with an odd green liquid, he had been trying all week to make to make an efficient cooling agent for his rays (the stuff from the catalogue cost an arm and a leg) and this was the closest he had come to success so far, if his predictions were right, cause lets face it, he's a villain and rule forty-two int the villain code is never openly admit the chance of failure until it is practically a guarantee) all he needed was to add exactly two drops of Hydrogen peroxide to the already strange chemical mixture and the concoction would be complete. Any more or less would render the concoction useless, and possibly radioactive. He began to turn the test tube carefully watching anxiously as the chemical began to flow down the side of the tube, hardly daring to breath as a single drop began to form at the end of the glass, now to move his hand just a hair, almost—

"WE WON!"

Doctor Two Brains gave a girlish scream and jumped, nearly dropping the tube and the beaker, he looked at the ground where a pool of freshly spilled peroxide had formed, the tube was now empty. "HENCHMEN. . ." he screached.

"CHARLIE WE WON WE WON" said the talkative henchmen as he ran into the room, holding a piece of paper. He noticed his boss standing in the corner and gave a grin. "Oh hi boss look, we finally get a vacation!" he said waving the paper in his hand.

Two brains blinked in surprise. "Give me that," he snapped as he took the paper and shoved the beaker into the henchman's hand. By now Charlie had wandered out of the side room and stood next to the talkative henchmen. The doctor peered at the suspicious paper and began to read "Dear underappreciated minions, we are pleased to inform you that you and your boss have won an all-expense paid three day long trip to Hawaii. Sincerely, the overworked, underpaid, underappreciated, henchmen, minion, grocery store worker foundation OUUHMGSW? What is this!?" He was almost shouting by the end of it.

"Hey, sure the name is a little long but it's not that weird"

"It's not the name" snapped Two brains as he held the letter at arm's length "Underpaid?! Overworked!? This is Ridiculous!"

"Well you did pay us in cheese for the first six months of our employment" henchmen #1 tentatively added.

"And what is the matter with cheese?"

The henchmen quickly switched to a different topic, knowing that that argument would get him nowhere but fired. "Anyway we're going to Hawaii, isn't this going to be fun!" Charlie nodded his head and lightly bounced up and down on his feet.

"Whoah, Whoah, Whoah," the doctor said, waving the beaker in his hand around. "Hold your horses, what about crime? What about the mice in the lair? What about the plants? What about my very delicate science experiments that need to be looked after and will be ruined if I leave them alone for over a day."

"Science experiments?"

Dr Two Brains face palmed. "Yes, the science experiments that I have been talking about all week where I am testing the best temperature and humidity storage for different kinds of cheese." the henchmen blinked and Two Brains raised an eyebrow "So we don't have a repeat of the blue fuzz incident."

Henchman #1 remembered that incident, it was the henchmen turned up the thermostat to ninety degrees Fahrenheit and forgot that the main room temperature was connected to the cheese vault. It was not fun for anyone.

"We can always find someone to look after the lair," Suggested Henchmen #1.

"Like who? We don't exactly have next door neighbors to water the plants while were gone, not to mention do you remember the last time I hired someone to take my place, it was a disaster!" Two brains folded his arms and tried to block out the saddened looks of the henchmen. A small part of him did want to see Hawaii, there were always new kinds of cheese to try when you traveled to different places. But there were plenty of good cheese to be stolen here. The main problem were the henchmen themselves. If he put a stop to this whole vacation thing they would mope around all week, and moping henchmen were not very intimidating. Not to mention they would probably write back to the OUU. . . H? A? and make a fuss, which wasn't good for public image.

He gave a long sigh, practically feeling the happiness radiate from the henchmen. "At least let me go to the grocery store and pick up snacks for the trip" he said as he walked out of the main lair to fetch his wallet from his room.

On the way out he slipped on the hydrogen peroxide.

**Hello new readers! This is my first story so plese be merciful if you see horrible mistakes in grammer, spelling or formatting. If you have any constructive criticism, advice, recommendations or what not please let me know.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing**

**-Icetalon**


	2. 50 Percent off Mouthwash

**To be honest, I only have a vague idea as to where this story is going. We could end up with anything from Wordgirl being declared the long lost princess of the Lexicon Empire to Dr. Boxlitner's personality still living inside Dr. Two Brains head making sarcastic commentary and somehow transferring his consciousness into a robot halfway across the world using the power of science. I asked my sister, who has been working as a mix between a beta and a muse, in an attempt to come up with a solid ending. The conversation went as followed. **

**"What change would you do to make the Wordgirl plot better?"**

**"How about they stop dosing the water with whatever is making the characters so stupid. Let's face it they're all idiots, maybe that's why some of the villains are smarter, maybe Toby was born with an immunity, wait, no, only a partial immunity, Wordgirl would be immune because she is an alien and Doctor Two brains would be because of the mouse brain, only it won't work completely because it's so small."**

**My sister isn't really a big fan of Wordgirl**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing**

Wordgirl zoomed over the city, did a few loopty-loops through the air and landed on the front porch of the Botsford house. After a quick scan of the surrounding area, which she almost had to do again, (for a split second the basketball court looked like a pool, must have been a mirage) she and Huggy, who was with her, relaxed and transformed into their alter egos Becky and Bob.

"I'm home!" she called as she walked through door and sat down on the couch. Bob, who was next to her was picking up a bag of chips he got from . . . where _does_ he get all that food from? Becky grinned, small part of her felt like it was cheating to use super speed to rush home; but it was worth it. At last it was the weekend, Friday afternoon and there was nothing to stop her from catching an episode or two of Pretty Princess and maybe even taking a nap. All she needed to do was just sit back, relax and well, relax some more. She could practically feel her headache draining away at the thought of it.

"Oh hi Becky, great timing, you can come with me to the grocery store! I was just about to leave. We're making _Beans a la Botsford_ tonight so I'm gonna need help carrying all the groceries!"

Aaaannnnd it was back.

Bob, thrilled with the prospect of food gave a small cheer and ran to the car while Becky gave a small groan. Can't she catch a break? A small part of her mind was trying frantically to think of an excuse to stay home, but this was the same part of her mind that made most of her sneaking-away-to-fight-crime excuses, so nothing she could think of was good.

When they had finally arrived at the store Mr. Botsford was having a hard time making an apparently difficult division. "I can't decide between bowtie pasta or shell pasta," he murmured as he peered at the shelf. This could take hours.

"Why not pick one of each" Becky suggested

Mr. Botsford looked scandalized, "You can't mix two different kinds of pasta!" He said, as if he was explaning why a three year old was not allowed to eat an entire jar of marshmallow cream. " Especially in a dish as refined as Beans a la Botsford."

Becky, being Wordgirl, could think of quite a few words that fit the dish better than 'refined' but decided not to say anything. She looked around feeling bored. As soon as they got to the door Bob had disappeared off to who knows where, leaving Becky alone. She only hoped that he wasn't trying to raid the lobster tank again.

Suddenly, she noticed a blindingly pink Pretty Princess and Magic Pony display that sat near the entrance. "Hey Dad, I'm going to go look at the toy section, ok?" She needed some way to entertain herself before it was time to leave.

Her only reply was an indistinct "Sure honey"

Walking off with a skip in her step she arrived at the display. It was a fair display she decided, it contained about a fourth of the figurines from the show; most of which she had received as presents from past years birthdays and Christmases. There were two, however, that she had never seen before, Glitter Hooves and Friendship Face. She was so absorbed at looking at them that she almost didn't notice a _very_ familiar voice close by.

"We do NOT need a family size jar of Nutella!"

Becky spun around "Dr. Two Brains?!" she said in surprise. Behind her stood the Doctor, who was holding two grocery bags and looking very exasperated. For a moment she was alarmed, her mind racing and her eyes scanning the area for anything she could run behind to transform before noticing the receipt sticking out of one of the bags.

Could it be that he was actually just . . . shopping?

"But Boss" began Henchmen #1

"NO!" said the white haired scientist grouchily "There is no way we can eat all of it before we go, and I am not going to come back after the trip to find a three day old jar of Nutella that no one wants to eat anymore."

"Charlie and I can eat it" the henchmen mumbled

Two Brains (who's already sharp hearing was amplified by his mouse DNA), caught every word. He made a move to retort but quickly realized the futility of that action. Instead he went to do the most sanity-preserving action he could think of. He went to the nearest vending machine inserted a dollar, typed in the number for the cheesiest snack he could find, and waited for his respite to arrive . . . only for it to get stuck in the machine.

"OH COME ON!" he half shouted, scowling at the machine as if it had personally insulted his mother.

Becky blinked and tried not to laugh.

She knew she should feel guilty, but a small part of her was gleeful at the thought that supervillains could have bad days as well.

Then she looked closely at the vending machine and began to think. Her Super-Secret Spaceship Hideout had vending machines that were surprisingly similar to earth ones (I suppose anyone, alien or otherwise can be partial to snacks), except for one key difference, they didn't take earth money. Problem was, neither Wordgirl nor Huggy had left the planet with any Lexicon currency.

For the first few months after they had crash landed Huggy left the machines alone, there was plenty of food at the Botsfords. Not to mention, on the off chance that they were rescued and the ship repaired Bob did not want to be questioned or teased about the missing snacks. But as time went on and rescue from earth seemed like a dimmer and dimmer possibility Wordgirl, much to the joy of Huggy, discovered how to persuade (hack), the machines into surrendering their snacks. Of course she had never used this power to steal, and never planned to. However, this was an instance where Two Brains genuinely wasn't stealing anything, and he had actually _paid_ for it. . .

Before she knew what she was doing Becky was walking over to the machine. "I can help with that," she said as she grabbed a free coupon from the nearby rack. She expertly inserted it into the machine while typing in the number for the cheese thingies Two brains bought, and quickly unplugged the machine before it realized that no, _50% off all mouthwash_ was not a currency. She plugged the machine back in and waited while, with a series of beeps, the machine swallowed the coupon as if it were cash and turned the small medal that held the snack, causing it to drop into the reachable snack holder below.

A small part of her laughed when she realized that the second bag of cheese (which was the one she technically ordered) snacks got stuck, the machine must be broken to only rotate the snack-releasing-medal-thingy a quarter turn. She felt a shot of relief at the thought that she didn't actually steal anything as the snack that had fallen had been paid for.

With a small flourish she reached through the flap, grabbed the bag, and presented it to the doc. Before she paused. All three villains were staring at her as if she had grown an extra head.

Doctor Two brains was the first to recover "Wow…that was impressive kid," he said as he took the bag of cheese thingies. (3% real cheese!) "Say," he began, "You look familiar."

Becky gave a nervous smile, "Well, um. . ." Getting her secret identity blown was _not_ part of the plan.

Two Brains snapped his fingers "I know! You're that girl who sold us those hideous goblin dolls."

Becky mentally sighed in relief "Y-yeah, that's right" she said "Becky Botsford normal citizen, that's me."

"So where did you learn that trick," asked Two brains as he opened the bag and started to, very noisily, eat its contents. Only a villain would look at hacking as a reasonable and positive activity.

"Ummm," Becky wracked her brain for an excuse, she could hardly say she learned it in the Super-Secret Space Ship Hideout. That would lead to many more questions she didn't care to ask. Where would a mild mannered fifth grader with an extensive vocabulary learn to _legally_ hack a vending machine? "I uh, learned it here" she said quickly "The manager spontaneously hired me for a day and the machine ate my dollar when I went to buy. . . (she frantically read the label of one of the available snacks) . . . an Anchovy Bar."

Two Brains blinked. "He really does try to hire everyone. . . "

". . . and 'fires' them when they say they don't want a job," Becky finished.

Two Brains seemed to be lost in thought for a second before he gave a smile, an evil looking smile. "Say, speaking of jobs. . . How would you like to watch my lair for three days while my henchmen and I go on vacation?"

Becky gave a startled "What!" as the henchmen breathed a sigh of relief, for a moment they thought Two Brains was going to hire her to replace them.

"You wouldn't need to do much, just make sure the mice don't get into the cheese vault, check the science experiments to make sure everything is running smoothly, and water the plants."

"SCIENCE EXPEREMENTS?!"

Two brains waved his hand dismissively "Nothing illegal" you could almost hear the "unfortunately" or "not this time" that would follow. "So what do you say?"

"Well, um. . ."

"I'll pay you ten dollars per day"

"DEAL!" said Becky, remembering the price tags on the figurines.

"Excellent" he said as he handed her a piece of paper "here is the address and entrance code, we get back Monday morning, don't mess the place up"

And with that, Two Brains and his Henchmen left, leaving Becky wondering exactly what she had gotten herself into.

**And there ya have it folks**

**Disclamer: I actually have no idea how to hack a vending machine, following the above instructions would most likely get you nowhere accept kicked out of whatever building you are in.**


	3. Seeds of Destruction

Tobey was in the library, and Tobey was board. He was still grounded, still! Honestly, He sent one measly robot out to wreck a little harmless mayhem and his mother replied by freezing his allowance and banning him from robots for an entire week! It was ridiculous.

He considered going to the technology section and reading up on how to improve his mechanics designs but he knew such an action would be futile; his mother knew enough about how a criminal thinks to check his library check out history, and if she saw him with a robotics related book he could be grounded for another week. That simply would not do.

Weighing his options, he counted it as a lost cause and vowed to wreak considerably more havoc once he finished serving his time. Not wanting his trip to the library (which he had taken out of sheer boredom) to be wasted; Toby swooped the first book he could find (Harry Potter) off the shelf and preceded to checkout.

Little did he know that his trip would turn out much more valuable than he thought.

(Line Break)

"Ok ok, maybe I should have thought it through a little more, but what's the worst that could happen?"

"Squack! Squeak squeeeeaaak!"

"What do you mean it could be dangerous? I've been there loads of times."

"Shriieek."

"Well sure I've always showed up as Wordgirl, but it should be even safer now that I'm, you know, actually invited." She paused, "and no this does _not_ make me an unofficial henchmen!"

"Squeeeeak, Squak?"

"No, there's no way he could have known I'm actually Wordgirl, besides, I think it's a good idea. Maybe we could find out how to defeat him more easily by looking at his lair."

"Squeak."

"And no, I'm not just saying that because I get ten dollars a day."

"Squack."

"Fine, believe what you want."

Mr. Botsford had finally made his decision about pasta, and now Becky and Bob were having a hushed conversation in the living room as he started his cooking. Bob was shocked when he heard who Becky had run into, and he was even more shocked when he heard that she was hired to watch his lair while he was on vacation. At first he tried to talk her out of it, saying that working for a supervillain, regardless of the circumstances, was not a very superhero thing to do. Becky had replied that taking back her word would not be very superheroish either. After a bit of arguing, Bob seemed mostly convinced that Becky would be ok, he had after all seen her punch through brick walls and take down robots fifty times her size, but that still didn't stop him from worrying.

"Look, it's getting late. If I leave now there's time for me to be there and back before dinner."

"Tell you what," she added, seeing his expression, "If I'm not back by, let's say five thirty, tell the family that I'm over at Violets house and come look for me," She said.

Bob nodded his head in agreement and Becky stood up. "Word up!" she declared (but not too loudly since her dad was in the other room) and in a flash of golden light Becky Botsford disappeared and was replaced by Wordgirl, invincible crime fighting superheroine.

As Wordgirl activated her super speed, the world took on a sudden hush, the clock on the wall slowed down, the drip in the faucet slowed to almost nonexistence, and everything else stopped in place. She rose into the air and, with a quick glance around to make sure no one was nearby, (can't be too careful) flew to the door. Opened it, went through, and closed it in the time it would take the average person to blink.

Once outside she soared upwards, enjoying the rush of flying and laughing at the glowing streak of energy she left in the air. Flying was, by far, the best part of being a superhero. She slowed knowing that if she kept going upward at this speed she would break through the atmosphere into the cold hush of space, which was all fine if you_ really_ wanted to go fast ( no air friction), but reentry back to earth was always difficult and often left her feeling singed. Becky straightened her flight once she was over the city and enjoyed the feel of the sun on her back and the wind through her cape. Flying made her feel weightless, weightless yet powerful, like a sphere of energy, a pint sized powerhouse.

Turning to face the wind she took off again, slower this time, towards the edge of the city where she knew Dr. Two Brains lived. Going at top speed it would have probably taken her less than a minute but she had learned long ago that most of the crime she missed with her super hearing was found when she was flying over the city, besides, she was still feeling a little worn out from the long week, so why rush?

By now the buildings were starting to look older and more run down, graffiti was strewn across the walls and Wordgirl winced at the horrible spelling. Who in their right mind would spell rules as rulz? Or totally radical at totatalley Readicle!? One of these days she was going to take a red spray paint can and correct all the grammar and spelling mistakes, it wouldn't look as artsy, but it would definitely be an improvement.

With a small burst of speed she arrived in front of the warehouse, changed into Becky Botsford, and pulled out the slip of paper she had been given earlier. It said that the password to the garage door opener was 4-5-5-0-8-1. Becky wasn't even aware that he had a garage door opener. She suppose that's what you get for always crashing through the windows when you visit a place.

She typed in the code and waited as the door began to rise. Once the door was open she entered cautiously and didn't bother closing the door, Becky felt safer with it open, even if she could crash through it with her super strength if escape turned out to be necessary. The lair itself was dark and she searched for a light switch. She found one with about five switches on it and clicked them on one by one, watching as each section of the warehouse was illuminated.

The place was pretty much how she remembered it, the walls were lined with stacks of boxes, ray weapons, and tall medal machinery with levers, buttons and little blinking lights. To the left there were two chalkboards, one right next to the other. Both looked like someone had drawn or written something elaborate on them that they had sloppily erased. The only thing she could make out was a half erased sentence near the bottom that said _-. Fin-ut -ore abou- OU- - -GSW_ and a couple of drawings of cheese near the border. In front of the chalkboards sat tables where Becky nervously recognized the beginning construction of what looked like a shrink ray. There were a few heavy metal doors and openings around the perimeter of the main room. A cheese patterned couch sat in the middle (Where does one even get a cheese patterned couch?) in front of a T.V that seemed to be powered by a mouse at a hamster wheel. The mouse, who had appeared to be sleeping opened its bright ruby eyes and, upon seeing Becky froze by the light switches, had skittered away into the shadows.

"Well this looks welcoming" she murmured to no one as she stepped deeper into the lair, keeping an eye out for any movement or big red X's on the ground. It would be just like Two Brains to booby trap the place and then forget to tell her.

Becky shook her head and focused on the task at hand. The sooner she got done the sooner she could return home and take a looong nap. First things first, she made her way over to a large tube shaped machine with a glass front, the tube was split into different sections each containing several different kinds of cheese, a thermometer, and a hydrometer. A graph taped to the wall listed the different kinds of cheese as well as the temperature and humidity for each compartment. Becky sighed in relief, it really wasn't anything illegal. In fact it almost reminded her of the experiments he would run back when he was Dr. Boxleitner. Except of course, now everything had to be cheese related.

Next order of business was the plants, since it didn't look as if the mice would get into the cheese vault anytime soon. Becky looked around, and quickly found a withered looking fern in the corner, now where was the kitchen? If she knew the doc it would be one of the most easily accessible rooms in the house. She ducked her head into one of the openings . . . fumbled for a light switch . . . and found another section of the warehouse almost bigger than the main room.

She blinked her eyes, "Wow" she said as she eyed the room, old inventions piled up against the walls, lasers, rays, and in the center there was what appeared to be an empty swimming pool which was set on its side for storage. An orange tree in a massive flower pot sat in the corner under a sun roof, and boxes of tools, nails, and duct tape lined the walls. So this was where he kept all his stuff, it kind of reminded her of her own hideout, except, you know, without the evil rays, and the mice. . .

The next room turned out to be a small kitchen. Becky quickly searched the cabinets for a cup and upon finding it filled it with water for the plants. She checked the other three rooms for plants, one of which she thought might be the henchmen's room (she snickered when she saw a teddy bear) one she didn't enter, it was the password protected vault which she suspected stored all the stolen cheese, and the third (Which did have a houseplant in the corner) that looked like Two brain's own room. She used the water in the cup to water the plants.

It was when she turned to leave that she spotted something shiny on the floor by the nightstand, it looked like a picture frame. She picked it up carefully, wincing when the glass that covered the picture fell to the floor, it looked like the picture had fallen off the nightstand and the glass came loose when it did, and she put it on the nightstand so no one stepped on it, but when she looked at the picture itself she gave a gasp.

It was Boxleitner.

He was wearing a green checkered sweater, a somewhat hilarious facial expression and was arm in arm with a lady who looked so similar they could only be family. They were standing in front of some famous monument. For a moment all she could do was stare at the picture. It had been years since she has seen her friend, well, years since she had seen her friend and he was not trying to zap her with his latest ray weapon or trying to turn the city into cheese. She turned her gaze to the other person in the picture and an odd thought struck her.

Family, Boxleitner had family.

'Well of course he had family." A small part of her mind reasoned, "It's kind of impossible not to." If she thought back she could almost remember him referencing a niece back when they were friends, what had his niece, or even his parents done when he turned into a supervillain? Did they even know? She looked at the picture sadly and began to gently set the picture back on the nightstand when. . .

_"- still here, why is Ratcatcher still—"_

_"Do you remember—"_

The picture fell from her hand to the nigh stand with a loud thunk. "Whose There!" she cried out, backing up and turning her head side to side. Upon seeing no one she ran out of the room and looked around, there was no one in the main lair as well. Her heartrate began to slow and her headache (which had sprung up in full force) began to subside. What just happened, hearing voices is never a good thing. Unless, you know, the voices are real and coming from actual people.

'Is it my superhearing?'She wondered. Sometimes her super hearing would activate unexpectedly, letting her hear conversations halfway across the city; but that was usually because her subconscious was on the lookout for anything that indicated a crime, like evil laughter or the ringing of an alarm bell or a cry for help. Even then the voice would sound slightly warped, like listening to a recording with bad speakers. These voices were none of those things, and they sounded very, very close by.

Becky strained her ears for the sound of anything moving close by but the only thing she heard was the squeaking of the mice and the wind on the roof. If this is what happens when she doesn't get enough sleep she really _does_ need a nap.

"It was probably just the wind" she remarked out loud to the ceiling. The ceiling, mercifully said nothing in reply.

Briskly she walked to the garage door, set it to close and zoomed out of the lair before the door could hit the ground.

**Ok. I actually sat down and began to plot out the entire storyline for this fic. So far I have a plan that I think is fairly solid. What do you like so far, what do you hate? Any advice or constructive criticism is much appreciated.**


	4. Strawberry Mischief

**So I might have just finished reading chapter 777 of One Piece when I saw on my e-mail that someone had Favorited my story. So I made the finishing touches on this chapter and bribed my sister with peanut butter M&Ms to beta it. Apologies for the long wait on this chapter (I have NOT Forgotten the story). Thanks for reading!**

**Disclaimer: Me no own Wordgirl.**

The next morning was a beautiful day, the sun was shining, the birds were singing, the thermostat read a steady 71 degrees Fahrenheit, and Becky, Bob, and Violet were at the local ice cream shop; discussing their career projects.

Once they had ordered their flavors they took a seat by the window to watch the street outside. Becky had all but forgotten the voices from last night, dismissing it as an illusion or lack of sleep.

Her main concern now was the annual career study project. "I still don't get why we have to do the project on what we want to be when we grow up, yet we can't do it on the same thing we did it on last year," Becky muttered.

Violet nodded sympathetically "I know, I've never wanted to be anything but an artist."

Becky appeared to be deep in thought. "Last year I said I wanted to be a security guard, and the year before that it was teacher."

"I still think you would make a good teacher" said Violet. "Your very good at correcting people's words, and then you could be a, you could be. . . oh what's the fancy title for a teacher?"

". . . a Professor?"

"Yeah, Proooofessssuur Botsford," said Violet in her whimsical voice.

Becky sighed and watch as a drop of melted ice cream fell from the cone to the napkin on the table. She never liked the career project, and not just because it was extra work on a weekend. She felt like she already had a job, being Wordgirl, and no other career seemed as important as what she was doing now. Well maybe a doctor, or a lawyer, those were pretty important, and a prison warden was important as well. But those were jobs that anyone could do (anyone who got good grades that is). A superhero was irreplaceable, no one else she knew had the super powers necessary to fight crime, at least, no one who wasn't already a criminal at least.

The real problem with the project was that it reminded her of her future. Being a superhero is, though not exactly fun all the time, very fulfilling and necessary to the city. However, superheroes as a rule don't get paid, and that's a good thing. One shouldn't use their superpowers to make money. But in the past few years she had realized that all the things that she would need when she got older,( a house, food, clothes, a car, etc.) cost money. And to get money you need a job, one that isn't being a superhero.

Becky had also read enough comic books to realize that most jobs and superhero work didn't mix well. Running off to fight crime when you should be working might work once or twice, but it will eventually get you fired. For a while Becky considered becoming a firefighter. She would always have an excuse to dash away to fight crime at a moment's notice, everyone would just think that there was a fire that needed to be fought. But if there was actually a fire it would be unbearable to wait for the truck to drive there at a maximum speed of sixty miles per hour when she could zoom there at the speed of sound as Wordgirl, she _hated_ long car rides. And even if the people in the town weren't the brightest bulbs in the lampshade they would notice if she disappeared consistently at the time of a fire.

Becky had always known that she was going to be a superhero when she was younger, and had been Wordgirl for a few years now. The thought of giving it up when she got older and just living as Becky Botsford felt very wrong. And the thought of juggling a solid career while fighting crime seemed difficult, if not impossible.

Of course, Becky had years of school ahead of her where she could be Wordgirl with, if not no trouble, very little of it. And she was confident that she could come up with a solution and a life plan when the time came, so no worries. All the same, the yearly career project was an unwanted reminder of the always unsure future.

Becky shook herself out of her thoughts and looked at Violet. "Maybe you can do your project on being a fashion designer, that takes a lot of artistic skill," she suggested.

"That's a great idea. You can be a. . . an ummm. . . a librarian!" Violet said happily.

"A librarian? Why a librarian?"

"Well you love to read, if you became a librarian you could be surrounded by books all day long. And you could read as much as you wanted. Well when you're not helping someone check out a book at least."

Becky smiled "That's a great idea, thanks Violet." A librarian would be a believable and easy enough job for the project, even if the initial problem still stood.

Violet fiddled with her napkin and began to think. "Maybe we could go over to my house later today and work on our projects while we paint each other's nails," she suggested, looking up with a smile.

Becky was about to agree before she remembered, "Ah, I would love to Violet, but I'm getting paid to watch someone's la-, house this afternoon." she said as she seemed to take a sudden interest in her ice cream cone.

Violet seemed confused "Watch someone's house?"

"Yeah, you know, water the plants and. . . stuff while they're on vacation."

"Ohhh, I see" said Violet. "I'll see you later then," Violet picked up her backpack and skipped out the door, pausing only to throw away her ice cream soaked napkins on the way out. Becky gathered her papers to leave as well when she heard a voice speak behind her.

"I don't get it" a male voice commented. Becky jumped and turned around. For a moment she panicked, afraid that she was hearing voices again when she saw to her relief there was actually someone there. It was Tobey, wearing a very irritable expression with a book under his arm and a cone of strawberry ice cream in his hand. "I've been looking for a job all day and it turns out you already have one."

"You're looking for a job?" Becky asked. The thought of Tobey willingly doing any sort of manual labor struck her as just plain bizarre.

Tobey's scowl deepened. "Why yes, indeed I am, my mother has banned me from my creative hobby of mass destruction and has cut my funding for an entire week," he paused "which is completely outrageous if you ask me," he added.

"How is mass destruction a creative hobby" asked Becky

Tobey smirked "How many ways can you destroy a building?"

Becky paused; she wasn't even going to try to answer that. "If you're looking for a job, why are you at an ice cream shop?" she asked.

"Well, obviously I was looking for a job here, but the man behind the counter said that they didn't hire minors. I was gracious enough to point out that I am not a miner, I am a boy genius, and that either way it is discrimination to refuse to hire someone based on their previous employment. Do you know how he replied?" he asked irritably.

Becky sighed "How did he reply?"

"He said that I had a great sense of humor, and he gave me this ice cream cone to try to pacify me!"

"That was nice of him," said Becky sincerely.

Tobey rolled his eyes, "Hardly, I wanted strawberry"

". . . that _is_ strawberry."

"Well then I wanted cherry, the point is that this ice cream shop is lucky to serve double triple chocoholic coco chip or I would unleash my wrath upon it in the form of an army of robots."

"You do know that when he said minor he probably meant minor as in a person under the age of eighteen and not a miner as in a person who works in a mine, right?"

Toby opened his mouth to reply, paused and then closed it. "Same difference" he muttered.

There was an awkward pause where both parties tried to think of something to say.

"So. . . if your mother banned you from all robot related items, why are you looking for a job. I mean, you can't spend your money on robot stuff."

Toby strengthened in his seat. "For your information I need to start saving money now in order to complete a very special project of mine." Becky noticed that he hugged the book closer as he said this.

"What sort of project?" she asked suspiciously.

Tobey looked slightly nervous. "Don't worry your little head about it," he snapped "All you need to know is that it's actually not illegal and that it may take quite a lot of work and funding if I am to pull it off."

Becky stood up, feeling slightly offended. There was no need for him to be rude about it. To think, they were almost having a pleasant conversation "Well, interesting as that is, it's time for me to head to my actual job." She had just reached the door when he spoke up again.

"Exactly whose house are you watching" Tobey asked curiously. Becky swallowed.

"Well, uh. . . that's none of your business," Becky stammered as she fingered the handle.

Tobey seemed thoughtful, and then he began to smile a smile that set off alarm bells in her head. It was the same smile he wore before he pressed the big red button on his remote that caused all the robots to attack at once. "What I would like to know," he said as he began to fiddle with a napkin, "is why anyone in their right mind would hire you to watch their house." Becky stopped dead and turned around, alarmed and a little, ok maybe more than a little angry at the sudden insult. It's not as if she wouldn't expect Toby to insult her, he does it almost instinctively at this point, but she was not used to him deliberately picking a fight.

"_Excuse_ me?!" she asked, glancing back. Now, when a female asks for clarification on what a male just said, it isn't because she didn't hear him, it's because she's giving him a chance to change his answer. Tobey didn't seem to realize this.

"It seems to me that you are a very distracted person, if you were watching my house while I was on vacation I would be concerned if it would be in one piece when I got back."

"I am not a distracted person!" she shouted.

"How many times have you run off to find your backpack, or turn off the stove, or attend an obscure class that you were late for in the past week?" Tobey asked with a smug grin.

Becky opened her mouth to argue but paused, she could hardly say she was just using those as excuses to fight crime and that only one, ok only three of them were true.

Tobey seemed to take her hesitation as a confession and gave a victorious grin. "Exactly" he said.

"Well, well I have more important places to be," she stammered out before she slams the door with more force than was strictly necessary. She winced, sure the glass would shatter under the force of her super strength (Wouldn't be the first time it happened), but miraculously it stayed in one piece.

She ducked behind a mailbox, transformed, and was in the air flying towards the shady side of town a split second later.

She didn't notice how Tobey replaced his smile with a contemplative expression the moment she left.


	5. We Meet Again

**Yosh. Icetaloned Frayfu here. I just want to thank all the kind people who have reviewed. **

**Disclamer: Warning, what you are about to read is not cannon. I repeat NOT cannon. It's just fanfiction, don't sue meeee.**

**oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo_  
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"Infuriating, cocky, troublesome, villainous, pugnacious, irritable, sinister, argumentative, insulting, jerk!" Becky muttered as she landed outside the lair and began to furiously type in the entrance code; glancing down at the paper to make sure she got the numbers right. One of the best parts of having super vocabulary was the limitless insults at her disposal. She stormed in not even bothering to change out of her costume and slapped the paper on the counter.

Now that she was alone in the silence of the lair she began to calm down, her mind still on the issue at hand, Tobey. She had remembered the first time they met, when their mothers had proposed that the children have a playdate. Something about him being shy and having no friends. It made sense in a way. He was short, blond, and he wore a semi formal outfit with a bowtie, that combine that with the lack of muscles and the round rimmed glasses made him the perfect recipe for a bully magnet, just add school. Imagine her surprise when he turned out to be cruel and obsessed with robotic destruction. The way he acted like he was the smartest person on the planet, the way he instantly zeroed in on the fact that she was Wordgirl before he was convinced otherwise. It seemed wrong to her, it irked her to no end how he would constantly act superior to her. It sickened her how he had a huge crush on Wordgirl.

But as time went on and she had seen him in class day after day she had realized something that began to, not really justify his actions, but make it,well, less severe.

He was like that to everybody.

Well, obviously not the I-have-a-crush-on-your-alter-ego part. (How many other people had an alter ego in her class?). But the rude, better-and-more-intelligent-than-you part. It wasn't a personal grudge against her, he wasn't hiding his true destructive nature and acting like a victim, (not that she thought he could if he tried). It was just the way he spoke and acted. There was something akin to honesty there. Honesty that she took for granted before the whole 'Mrs. Power incident'. The insults seemed less like statements of cruel malice and more of an aspect of his personality. It was just how he was, and even if he was a villain he was still a person deep down. Reaaaally deep deep deep down.

Of course he lacked all forms of tact, and an insult, whether it was meant or not was still hurtful. Not to mention the masses of robots he would turn against the city for sheer enjoyment. He was far from the good guy in anyone's eyes especially Becky's, he was just. . . easier to understand, that's it.

But she still didn't understand the whole crush-on-Wordgirl part.

Shaking her head she focused her mind on the task at hand and glanced about the warehouse; everything was pretty much as she left it the other day. She began to walk to the kitchen to get water for the plants when she stopped. Slowly she turned around and stared at the counter, blinking her eyes to make sure she saw it right.

The paper was gone.

"That's funny," she said out loud. Her voice echoed loudly against the darkened walls.

She searched the ground around the counter, but the paper was nowhere to be found. This was bad, if she lost the paper she lost the entrance code, and without the entrance code she couldn't enter as Becky Botsford. Could it have blown off the counter? her eyes rose to the window, broken from the many times she had flown through it. 'That must be it,' she thought. There must have been a breeze that blew the paper away. Papers can't just grow legs and walk away, and of course she was the only one here. Right?

"_Ratcatcher's still looking. . . . realise. . . unwelcome."_

"_. . .course. . .enemy of my enemy. . . complet-"_

"WHAT THE!" Wordgirl spun around, a small corner of her mind pointed out that this was what she got for making assumptions. She felt her heart begin to race.

"_. . .do you think. . ."_

"_SHHHH!"_

Wordgirl sharpened her hearing, desperately trying to ignore her frantically pounding heart. There! The voices were coming from inside the cupboard. With a burst of speed she shot forward and yanked open the cupboard barely noticing the horrible shriek of the hinges as the door snapped clean off. Inside three mice blinked at the sudden light and dived for cover inside an empty cereal box. No one was there.

She looked at the cabinet for almost a minute, '_this was not normal,' _she thought, before she guiltily she looked at the cupboard door in her hands. The wood beneath her fingers was almost completely pulverized to dust. She relaxed her grip and winced as the dust sprinkled to the floor, leaving an indent roughly the size of her palm in the wood. Two Brains wouldn't be happy. Worse, he would be suspicious. No mild mannered six grader (except maybe Eugine), could rip off the door to a cabinet with a grip strong enough to leave fingerprints. She opened her hand and let the door fall to the ground with a loud clatter.

"I know I heard something," she said to the air. The air, mercifully said nothing in reply.

Hearing voices was not a good thing. Hearing voices was _never_ good. "OK, ok calm down" she muttered. "Maybe somebody left the radio on. Maybe somebody left the T.V on."

She turned her head to where Two Brain's T.V sat. It was covered in duct tape, one of the antenna was crooked, and the screen was completely blank.

". . . or maybe I'm just talking to myself in an empty room with no one around and this really would be a good time to panic." She murmured shakely. There has to be an explanation for this, there just _has_ to be.

"THE LIBRARY," She suddenly yelped as she kicked off the ground to hover in the air, hovering considerably higher than she usually did. "I'll look in the library, bound to be some useful information there." No need to panic, none at all. She activated her flight and shot up and out through the broken window. She didn't notice her career project papers that flew out of her cloak from the sudden acceleration, or that she left the lights on. She was looking for answers.

~(Line Break)~

Tobey was sitting calmly in the library, silently reading his book like a well behaved child. He was a lot smarter than most people thought he was; as he frequently told them! It took intelligence, no genius to find all the scrap metal, meld it together into sheets and nuts and bolts and wires, design a robot that towers over skyscrapers, and program it with more than just the ability to carry out specific functions,but personality as well. Sometimes too much personality.

He remembered poring over psychology books, studying personality types, collecting common words and phrases, searching through obscure coding books for more sophisticated information; all to build a machine that would respond, have personality, laugh at jokes and get mad. As soon as he was satisfied with the new robotic personalities he stopped his research, but he had never really forgotten all that he had learned. Which was why what was about to happen will be suspicious.

He had just started chapter four when he heard rushed footsteps enter the library. He heard a hushed voice ask a question, and the prim voice of the librarian answer. He thought nothing of it, and turned the page.

Suddenly a loud crash rang behind him. Tobey jumped in his seat and twisted around to snap at whoever was making so much noise. But was stopped short, the words dying in his throat.

"SORRY, sorry" said Becky in a strained voice as she hurried to pick up the numerous books that had crashed onto the floor. Tobey blinked. She looked awful, well, more awful than usual. Her hair looked like she was taking grooming advice from the little mermaid. Her face was pale and her eyes were darting back and forth as if she expected the librarian to suddenly grow bat wings, fangs and shriek at her to get out of the library. Tobey would know the feeling, that was what happened in his dream last night.

"Becky?" he asked lightly. Becky upon hearing him whipped around to look at him, dropping a few books in the process. Tobey bit down panic. For a second there he could have sworn. . . but no, Her eyes were brown. They were always brown. And they were currently fixed in a judging stare.

"T-tobey" she stammered. "What are you doing here?"

Tobey blinked in response to the ridiculous question "Reading, he answered."

"Oh, right. Reading, reading is fun," she stammered as she bent down to pick up the books. Tobey didn't bother to help. He was too puzzled by her strange behavior. Although it wasn't really anything new, human- er, other people always acted weird.

"What are _you_ doing here?" he asked, wondering why Becky was acting all normal when just fifteen minutes ago she was storming out of the room slamming the door behind her. Becky seemed to remember this and hurriedly began stacked the books on the shelf.

"Yeah, um. . . after I left the ice cream shop I decided to head over to the library to. . . research for my career project." she laughed with a smile. The smile looked strained.

Tobey glanced at the books that she had just finished stacking. The titles were _Phycology for Dimwits, The Looney Bin, A Guide to Insanity, _and _101 Reasons to Ignore the Voices in your head._

"Reeeeaaallllly, it took fifteen minutes to walk across the street to the library?"

"I'm a really slow walker" she replied.

Tobey knew when he was being lied to. "You seemed to be storming out the door pretty quickly." he deadpanned. It didn't take super hearing to hear the unspoken 'sure, tell me another.'

Tobey watched as Becky bit her lip. "I . . . ummm. . ." she looked up suddenly. Tobey waited for whatever feeble cover up lie would follow. Becky was always a bad liar, all the excuses in class to sneak away, all the odd excuses as to where she was. It bugged him. When they first meet he thought it was because she was Wordgirl, a ridiculous notion for sure, but what else was he supposed to think. Here, however was a chance to get her to actually admit that she was lying and to find out the truth of the matter. He smirked inward at his victory. He had her now, caught in a lie.

Becky continued, oblivious to the scheming. "Ok, ok, I admit it. The truth is. . . I wanted to apologize."

". . . come again?"

Becky seemed to pick up steam. "Um, yeah. I left That ice cream shop in a pretty bad mood, stomping out in all, and I feel bad about getting all mad at you, (even if you were being rude), so I wanted to apologies. . . after I spent about fifteen minutes calming down outside." She laughed nervously, "no hard feeling. Right?"

Tobey was speechless.

This was not what he was expecting. A small part of his mind commented that maybe it was a good thing that she was looking at physiology books.

"Well, er. If that is all then apology accepted I suppose." He murdered when he finally got over his shock. Something was definitely wrong.

Tobey had known Becky for a while now. Becky was a strange girl, not quite dumb enough to completely dismiss as one of the masses but not nearly as smart as himself, of course. She was always forgetful, always distracted, always murmuring to her ferret? monkey? armadillo? and disappearing at the most peculiar times, stuttering excuses just ridiculous enough to believe. She always acted superior, as if she was in on some big secret and was incredibly nosy. He thought he had a firm understanding of her personality by now. But never before had he heard her apologize.

This was a mystery, and Tobey _hated_ mysteries.

Becky began to speak again. "Yep, well I'm just going to check out now." she muttered as she picked up her books and scurried over to the desk with the librarian.

Something was definitely wrong.


End file.
